The Rational Decision Maker, the Gratification Monkey and the Panic Monster!
Great title? That’s thanks to Tim but more on that later. People, who know me, see me as being someone who’s ‘extremely organised’. That’s because I always prepare for everything well in advance, and I always meet deadlines.
The truth is, like many other people, I procrastinate on a regular basis. Yes, it’s true! This especially happens when I’m online. I find myself getting very easily distracted from’ the task at hand, because I have somehow ended up on Facebook, or I’ve found a new amazing online tool that I need to explore and then add to my ever growing list of amazing tools, none of which has anything to do with the task at hand. To be fair, the distractions normally take over because the task I’ve set out to do doesn’t have a fixed deadline. So, say I am doing some secondary research for Gillian B, to keep up to speed with what’s going on with competitors, or pricing, well, because it’s an ongoing activity it doesn’t really have a deadline, and when I don’t have to do it by the end of day, I struggle to do it at all!
But if the task relates to work for a client and it has a deadline, then I love to do it!
When I have to do something for someone else I jump into action and get it done in plenty of time! Why? It’s because I love to feel that I am really efficient, totally organised and that I can be completely relied on!
So I guess a big problem for a procrastinator is that tasks that relate to our own business growth or personal development seem to be the hardest ones to undertake on a regular basis. Nobody is going to thank me for setting up my filing systems or scheduling my weekly social media. Nor are they going to thank me for writing a weekly blog post. So, it seems, I have less incentive to get those things done. Well here comes the blog post at least!
Anyway, this happened to me one afternoon. I was sitting at my laptop, aware that I had a few hours to spare which could be put to productive use, but I found I had no incentive whatsoever to do anything. Then the word came into my mind ‘procrastination’, this is what they call procrastination, so I googled it (I love Google) and came across a Ted Talk by Tim Urban. Tim claims to be a serious procrastinator and describes this very effectively with some simple media and a witty sense of humour! He talks us through the Rational Thinker, the Gratification Monkey and the Panic Monster, hence the title of my blog. Check it out here and I think you will agree that we could all learn something from his closing remarks.
Gillian B
gillianb.org 